About MPRI Maritime

MPRI Training Systems Group was established in September 2005 when L-3 Communications combined the intellectual assets of two companies: Ship Analytics, a maritime simulation company that was founded in 1972 and I-Sim, a driving simulator enterprise that was established in 1991. These two companies formed one cohesive simulation business group under L-3 Communications’ MPRI subsidiary. The natural strengths of the resulting Training Systems Group were reinforced when two more companies were incorporated into it: Hitec O, a Norwegian dockside and offshore crane simulation company, and gForce Technologies, an Ann Arbor, Michigan, company specializing in the modeling of vehicle dynamics, airport support simulations, and simulator visuals. In 2008, the group moved its crane simulation assets from Norway to Salt Lake City.

MPRI Training Systems Group focuses primarily on simulators and simulation training services. However, we maintain a close relationship with our sister MPRI groups and parent L-3 groups so that we can offer all of L-3’s capabilities and expertise with the highest confidence. MPRI Training Systems Group’s years of experience, coupled with continuous research and development by a staff of in-house engineers and technology specialists, have enabled the group to consistently build advanced systems in driving, maritime, crane, and airport operations simulation and training. Training Systems Group has supplied hundreds of simulators and computer-based decision and training-support systems throughout the world.

MPRI Training Systems Group is based in Salt Lake City, which has been a major center of computer-based simulator research and development ever since the legendary visual-system and computer-generated-imagery company Evans & Sutherland was founded there in 1968. Much of MPRI Training Systems Group’s intellectual capital derives, directly or indirectly, from this pioneering simulation company.

In addition to its Salt Lake City headquarters, MPRI Training Systems Group has offices in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the United Kingdom, and Singapore and a network of representative agents around the world. The Group offers turnkey training-facility development, a full range of realtime simulation training systems, and an array of services both before and after installation. MPRI Training Systems Group has been assessed and certified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance to the ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard with TickIT for software development.

Maritime simulators and training

The maritime unit, together with our international partners, provides a complete line of maritime simulators, including:

• bridge
• engine room
• navigation aids, including ARPA (automatic radar plotting aid)-enabled radar, ECDIS (electronic chart display and information system), and GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System)
• liquid-cargo handling
• port crane

Bridge simulators

The maritime unit’s full-mission shiphandling simulators provide versatile and realistic ship simulation for deck watch officers, bridge teams, and pilot training. The simulators also provide an ideal environment for IMO (International Maritime Organization) STCW (standards of training, certification, and watchkeeping) assessment and maritime research. MPRI’s shiphandling simulators are used by academies, port authorities, and navies around the globe for teaching bridge-team management, basic shiphandling skills, underway replenishment, search and rescue, and naval tactics. MPRI Training Systems Group has installed more than two dozen of these trainers at nautical schools and training centers. This is a selected list of our installations:

• Swire Pacific Offshore, Singapore
• United States Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut
• National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung
• Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt
• Indonesian Seafarers program, Jakarta
• Odessa Maritime Training Centre, Kherson and Sevastopol, Ukraine
• Singapore Police Coast Guard
• Port of Singapore Authority
• Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay

Engine room simulators

The marine engine room simulators include slow and medium speed diesel engines, steam propulsion, and advanced electrical power generation and distribution systems. The simulators enable marine engineers to rehearse normal operating procedures in a highly realistic manner and experience situations that would be too dangerous to replicate in the real world. Our engine room simulators range from full-scale engine and electrical control rooms to PC-based graphics trainers. Customers include:

• Swire Pacific Offshore, Singapore
• California Maritime Academy, Vallejo
• Warsash Maritime Academy, UK
• United States Army Transportation School, Fort Eustis, Virginia
• Texas A&M University, USA
• CIAGA Brazilian Navy
• Singapore Polytechnic, Singapore
• STIP, Marunda, Indonesia
• Wartsila Land & Sea Academy, Subic Bay, Phillipines
• Odessa Maritime Academy, Ukraine

Navigation aids simulators

ARPA (automatic radar plotting aid)-enabled radar simulators train mariners in the setup, maintenance, and understanding of modern radars, which always contain ARPA, and their displays. The simulators provide full capabilities for manual and automatic detection and tracking of targets while students learn to determine target ranges, bearings, courses, and speeds. The simulators contain all IMO-required warnings and alarms.

ECDIS (electronic chart display and information system) simulators train mariners in the use and understanding of electronic chart information.  ECDIS is a complex shiphandling system that assists mariners in all aspects of navigation and is the legal equivalent of a paper chart. ECDIS displays digital chart information with ships’ positions and courses. The ECDIS simulators can be used to make sure that mariners understand all the intricacies of electronic charts for navigation.

GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System) simulators train mariners to communicate effectively during an emergency by realistically simulating simultaneous multichannel communications, signal propagation, and attenuation properties while providing the look and feel of real equipment. The simulator complies with IMO STCW standards for GMDSS training. Training Systems Group has included these simulators as integrated elements of our ship simulators and as standalone trainers to centers such as:

• Houston Marine International Training Center, New Orleans
• Texas Maritime Academy, Galveston
• Singapore Polytechnic
• National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung
• Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt

Liquid cargo handling simulator

The maritime unit’s liquid cargo handling simulator (LCHS) is the world’s leading bulk liquid cargo simulation software system. It trains liquid cargo vessel operators in both routine and emergency cargo handling and ballast transfer operations. The software simulates pumps, valves, fluid dynamics, and cargo handling elements accurately in real time. An intelligent software package provides direct feedback to the trainees. Here’s a select list of customers demonstrating the range of MPRI’s LCHS installations:

• Warsash Maritime Academy, Southampton
• World Maritime University, Malmö, Sweden
• Ship Manoeuvring Simulator Centre AS, Trondheim, Norway
• A.P. Møller-Mærsk Gruppen, Copenhagen
• MOL Tankship Management Ltd., Tokyo
• BW Gas ASA, Oslo
• Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, Glasgow
• Centro de Instrucción y Capacitación Maritima (CIMAR), Valparaiso
• Makarov State Marine Academy, St. Petersburg
• Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay
• BP Shipping, Sunbury on Thames
• Escola Náutica Infante D. Henrique, Paço de Arços, Portugal
• Centro Nacional de Formación Marítima de Isla Cristina, Huelva, Spain
• Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt
• State University of New York Maritime College, Throggs Neck

Port crane simulators

The crane unit is the world market leader in crane simulators capable of accurately reproducing the operating characteristics of the cranes typically used at the busiest ports in the world and in offshore installations. Realistic simulated training for crane operators has been shown to produce safer, more efficient, and more cost effective ports. Our simulators can train the operators of all major port and offshore crane types, including single- and twin-lift gantries, rubber-tire gantries, rail-mounted gantries, pedestal and truck-mounted cranes, and lattice cranes. Our customers include:

• A.P. Møller-Mærsk Gruppen, Copenhagen
• DP World, Dubai
• MOL Tankship Management Ltd., Tokyo
• BP Shipping, Sunbury on Thames
• BW Gas ASA, Oslo
• Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, Glasgow
• Centro de Instrucción y Capacitación Maritima (CIMAR), Valparaiso
• Makarov State Marine Academy, St. Petersburg
• Ningbo Port Group, Ningbo, China
• Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd.
• Yantian International Container Terminals Ltd., Yantian, China
• Tianjin Port (Group) Co., Ltd., Tianjin, China
• Maritime Employers Association, Montreal, Quebec
• Carrier Container Council, Baltimore, Maryland
• Pacific Maritime Association, Oakland, California, and Tacoma, Washington

Integrated training academies

Through its many years of experience in building maritime simulation facilities and training equipment, MPRI Training Systems Group has earned an international reputation as an expert in delivering integrated training centers. We have ongoing development of these centers:

• Arab Academy for Science & Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt
• Indonesian Seafarers schools, Jakarta

Driver simulators and training

Visit: www.mpri.com/driver

MPRI Training Systems Group’s driver unit designs, develops, and manufactures a suite of high-fidelity simulators and provides simulation-based training services for ground vehicles that define the state of the art. We have nearly five hundred driving simulators in the field and our staff of professional trainers has trained over ten thousand drivers worldwide. MPRI’s customers include U.S. and allied military organizations, federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies, state departments of transportation, fire departments, emergency-vehicle operators, private fleets, mining concerns, and commercial trucking and transportation companies. Among our customers are:

• United States Army, Fort Drum, New York and other locations
• El Malke Wheeled Transport Base, Egyptian Ministry of Defense
• California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (CalPOST), Sacramento, and including numerous regional training centers in the state
• Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Georgia
• Laredo Police Department, Texas
• Schneider National, Inc., Green Bay
• Swift Transportation, Phoenix
• J. B. Hunt, Lowell, Arkansas
• Bison Transportation, Winnipeg, Manitoba
• Peabody Energy, St. Louis
• Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, Georgia and other locations
• University of Central Florida, Orlando
• Driver Education Center of Australia (DECA), Shepparton, Victoria, with training facilities throughout Australia and New Zealand
• University of Utah, Salt Lake City
• Pepsi Bottling Group, Somers, New York
• UPS, Atlanta
• Verizon Communications, New York
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Regina, Saskatchewan
• United Rentals, Greenwich, Connecticut
• National Solid Wastes Management Association, Washington, D.C.
• Walker Concrete, Stockbridge, Georgia

Our driving simulators include:

• PatrolSim IV sedan and light-vehicle simulator designed specifically as a police cruiser but easily adaptable to other applications
• TranSim VS IV truck and heavy-vehicle (e.g. fire trucks, mining equipment, buses) simulator
• Mark IV truck simulator with a mockup cab on a six-axis motion base

The driver unit traces its roots to the development of the Daimler-Benz research simulator in the late 1980s. The founders of what would eventually become the driver unit of MPRI were involved in the development of the technology for that simulator. They emphasized the accurate modeling of vehicle dynamics and propriaceptive feedback to the simulation vehicle driver to enhance the training value of the visual components.

Airport operations simulators

Visit: www.mpri.com/gforce

MPRI Training Systems Group offers a range of airport ARFF (aircraft rescue and firefighting) and ramp operations simulators.

Firefighting simulator

The Snozzle, built by Crash Rescue Equipment Service, Inc., is a truck-mounted boom equipped with a piercing element. The operator deploys the piercing element into the plane fuselage or engine cavity, getting the fire-fighting agent directly where it is needed. MPRI Training Systems Group’s Snozzle simulator trains firefighters to extinguish aircraft fires on grounded planes. The simulator provides three levels of training: voice-proctored tutorial-based for equipment familiarization, voice-proctored fire-fighting, and independent fire-fighting.

Deicing simulators

MPRI Training Systems Group’s interactive Elephant Beta Trainer and Tempest Trainer emulate the function and feel of the Vestergaard Elephant Beta deicer and the JBT AeroTech Tempest deicer respectively. Both trainers are suitable for skill training, assessment,  and retention. The trainers are effective, affordable, and flexible and offer a variety of year-round training opportunities. Multiple trainers can be networked to allow trainees to practice complex, multi-operator maneuvers with headsets and simulated radio with no risk of damage to equipment or aircraft. Trainees can practice distributing fluids in a controlled, efficient, cost-effective way without the use of an actual truck or waiting for an aircraft, saving maintenance and deicing fluid expenditures.

Pushback simulator

Our Interactive Pushback Trainer emulates the function and feel of an aircraft pushback truck. It is excellent for skill training, skill assessment, and skill retention. The trainer is effective, affordable, flexible, and offers a variety of year-round training opportunities without the use of a real pushback vehicle or a real aircraft.

Integration and consolidation

MPRI Training Systems Group is now integrating the simulation capabilities of its maritime, crane, airport operations, and driver units. This fusion has resulted in a cross-pollination of best practices and expertise that has sharpened the technological edge that each operating unit brought to the company.